April 25: World Malaria Day

Every year, on April 25, the World Malaria Day is being marked by several international organizations including World Health Organization. This year, the day is being marked under the theme

Theme: Zero Malaria Starts with me

Highlights

• The World Malaria Day is marked to mobilize resources to control Malaria, to keep Malaria high on political agenda and to empower communities to prevent malaria.
• The World Malaria Day was established by the World Health Organization at its 60^th session in 2007. 
• It was established to provide understanding and education of the disease. 
• Prior to the World Malaria Day, Africa Malaria Day was established in 2001. 
• It was signed by 44 countries at the African Summit on Malaria.

Background

• Between 2000 and 2014, the number of people that died of Malaria fell by 40% worldwide. 
• However, the World Malaria Report, 2019, says that more than a billion people died of malaria in 2018. 
• Malaria remains a potential threat to the poor and the vulnerable.

Global public Health Campaigns of WHO

• Malaria is one of the eight global public health campaigns that are marked by the WHO. 
• The other 7 campaigns are World Tuberculosis Day, World AIDS Day, World Hepatitis Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Immunization Week, World Blood Donor Day and World Health Day.